Rosédès Cotolon, a charming and virginal young hobbit-maid from the Farthing-Midi with hair as black as the smoke from a Gauloise and large dark eyes like a gazelle or Sauron, was preparing mushrooms in her kitchen in Hobbitone, when the fisherhobbite Pippand de Touc entered.

"Bonjour, mon ami," she said, cheerfully, for the scent of the mushrooms had put her in an excellent mood.

"Rosédès," murmured Pippand. "Rosédès! Have you no reply to my professions of love? O cease to torment me, and accept my hand, my heart, and my fish! Or else tell me that my life and death mean nothing to you, that my happiness is but a game or a hobbite-piquenique in your eyes."

"I have never encouraged your delusions; you cannot reproach me with a single coquetterie in your regard," replied Rosédès. "I love you as a brother; but another has my heart. I would hardly make a decent wife for you, after all, if I loved another."

"Samouard Gamgès!" growled Pippand, picking a mushroom from Rosédèsís pot and chewing on it menacingly. "I will kill him. I will boil him in water hot, a noble thing; never did fountain sound so sweet as the squeals of an enemy when water hot is poured over his head."